The popularity of indie publishing and info-products has created a demand for supporting tools for both designers and authors. There is no question that a professional, eye-catching design can significantly increase sales of eBooks, audio products, software, app’s, and eLearning products. Applying that design to 3D covers makes the product more tangible to potential buyers. However, the design process can take a lot of time and money if you outsource it. That has made 3D cover generating tools for info-products very popular.

Getting Started with DIY Cover Design

When you’re designing a cover or packaging yourself, you’ll need to learn the important aspects of cover design so you end up with a professional look that intrigues online consumers.

“Your cover is the first impression you make on a prospective reader,” writes Mark Coker for Smashwords. “It’s the visual embodiment of everything your book represents. Great covers, through their imagery alone, can communicate genre, topic, mood, and setting. A great cover image makes a promise to the reader. It helps them recognize your book as one they’ll enjoy reading.”

Following are some cover design tips to get you started:

Design your cover so that it reflects what the product is about the moment a consumer sees it.

Use high-quality stock photos with commercial rights. For selection and value for the money, my favourite source is Deposit Photos.

Choose colours and fonts that are eye-catching and clear. Use them to further illustrate what the product or book is about.

Your cover design needs to look fantastic and be readable in any size, from large to thumbnail.

A wonderful thing about some of these tools is they don’t stop at rendering a 3D eBook or CD cover. They offer a myriad of 3D images, applying your book or brand to everything from iPods to mouse pads. A few clicks and indie authors can have an entire line of branded graphics to use in their marketing, sales and on their website.

I work with a few authors and decided it was time I added an eCover generator to my tool set. I was surprised by how many options are out there and it took quite some time to review them all and select one. I’m hoping to save authors and book designers some time with this list.

Having a background in design makes me a tad picky. However, I recognize that simplicity is important to a lot of indie authors and other info-product producers. For them, I’ve included a few of the more limited tools that will get the job done quickly and easily. None of these tools are difficult to use, but some are more involved than others.

Web-based eCover Design Tools

This category contains some truly superior packages and I love the monthly payment options.

My eCover Maker is a point-and-click, web-based tool for creating 3D and 2D eBook covers. My eCover Maker includes an eBook cover designer, a graphic and banner tool, and the ability to apply text effects to a great selection of fonts.

eCover Go 3d Ebook Cover And Marketing Graphics Generator is actually a suite of web-based generators that includes 3D eCovers and a huge selection of other graphics. You’ll have access to 30 different generators to create graphics, mobile sites, templates, menus, frames and so on. The eCover software package includes an eBook cover and logo designer, a whopping 200 cover types in 72dpi and more than 50 cover types in 300dpi (high resolution for print). You can have it all for a very reasonable monthly subscription rate. You can choose to pay monthly and cancel anytime. Try it free!

What do I use?

I downloaded one dud while shopping around, which obviously isn’t included here. After carefully reviewing my options, I went with the eCover Go 3D eBook Cover and Marketing Graphics Generator. I don’t need all the tools since I also use PhotoShop and other design software, but I love the choices and the quality of the final rendering. I used eCover Go to design the graphics in this article.

If you’ve decided to have your eCover professionally designed for you, check out Killer Covers, or look for designers on Fiverr, Freelancer or crowdsource your cover through 99Designs. If you’re looking for a Canadian book cover designer, check out Nova Scotia’s Cathi Stevenson.

Do you have a favourite 3D cover design software to do it yourself, or do you hire someone to do your digital product designs? Please share in the comments below.